Category Archives: family

I’ve had some interesting discussions with my wife lately about the whole Santa Claus thing— whether or not to tell your children that there is a magical guy that flies around once a year, bouncing from rooftop to rooftop, sneaking into people’s houses via chimney and WD-40.

This article is from a Christian perspective; as a Christian I tend towards thinking the whole Santa thing is a bad idea to begin with. I know that makes me a big fat killjoy (it wouldn’t be the first time), but the reason has nothing to do with a sense that Santa is not the “reason for the season” or distracts from Jesus….

My main issue is teaching a child that something is real, and then saying it’s not. The guy in the article argues that teaching about mystery is good for children— I agree; it’s good for adults too. But when the jig is finally up, and Santa is exposed as a fraud, how then do we treat the mysterious in our world? As a fraud, I would expect! We learn to mistrust the fanciful and wondrous (especially when those in authority purport those ideas) and that keeps us from either accepting the possibility of spirituality at all, or we make religion into doctrines and dogmas, because, well, there’s no mystery in that.

Oh yeah, the marketing kills me, too… how we spend 140 billion on Christmas EVERY YEAR, when even just a fraction of that amount could end world hunger/poverty/lack of clean water/lack of education/treatments/etc.etc.etc…..

Santa was supposed to teach us about the spirit of giving, and now he’s a marketing tool, invoking nostalgia for more innocent times… such as, back when we believed in Santa…the magical and mysterious…

Maybe we can find a way to teach our children about giving and love in another way during the holiday season, and instead find ways to invoke real mystery and awe in our everyday lives, throughout the year.

Thanks to everyone who’s sent letters; they’ve been making a huge difference. I hear from Amy that Todd and Norah’s quest to bring back their adopted child from Guatemala is catching the ear of various House representatives and they’re asking us to stop sending letters. I also hear that some news sources might be reporting on the story soon in Texas, but we’ll have to wait and see on that one.

Both above sites have copies of the letter to send to your representative, that you can copy and paste into an email box, accessible HERE. All you have to do is find your rep by typing in your zip code, and there will be a link to send them an online note.

It’s making a difference, so keep it coming! (And it takes 1 minute, literally. )